ALTHOUGH Dr Alfred Dawes has his political binoculars trained on St Catherine South Eastern, his vision for the constituency, if he has his way, could trigger a renaissance of sorts for the entire Portmore, transforming the coastal municipality that is home to approximately 180,000 people into “a wellness city” that, Dawes believes, would be “an example for not just other places in Jamaica, but the Caribbean”.

“The raw material is all there, it just needs vision, a buy-in from the citizens and the leaders and then it can be executed,” Dr Dawes told the Jamaica Observer in a recent interview.

Dr Dawes, after all, is no stranger to Portmore. He’s heavily invested in a private medical facility — Carivia General Hospital — at Cookson Pen, Braeton, which features 23 private beds, six of which will be in high-dependency units; three operating theatres; a full radiology suite; 24-hour accident and emergency department; a pharmacy; as well as consultation rooms for various medical and surgical specialities.

Last year he told the Observer that he and his partners in Carivia General intend to bring First-World private care within the reach, both geographically and financially, of the average Jamaican, not just in Portmore.

The hospital, he pointed out, is in a constituency adjoining the one he is seeking to contest as the People’s National Party candidate in the next general election. And success in that poll will place him in the Parliament where he intends to focus his energy, talent and knowledge on policies that can redound to the benefit of Jamaicans, especially the people living in Portmore.

“There’s so much unlocked or unrealised potential in Portmore,” he argued, pointing out that when the community had been conceptualised one of its alluring features was green spaces.

However, those spaces, he said, are now parking lots, or overgrown with shrub, or are repositories for old motor vehicles.

“We have not found a way to create the suburbia that we see in other countries where people would be working in the cities, but then go home to the suburbs… these nice green spaces where children can run and play safely, that has not happened,” Dr Dawes said.

“The mindset that Portmore is a dormitory community has taken root, where people just think it’s a place to go home and sleep and head back out to Kingston. We need more entertainment, we need more opportunities for the youth within the soon-to-be-parish. We also need to have the safety of the citizens addressed because we have not seen the parks and recreation, we have not seen the jogging trails, the bike lanes that you could have.

“People need parks where they can exercise. The roads, sidewalks, they need to have jogging trails, children need to have public parks, with slides, monkey bars, etc. There’s nowhere for a family to have a picnic, or not many spaces; some communities have them, but not many places have somewhere where if I’m just gonna enjoy the outdoors, I’d have a picnic. Simple things like being outdoors in the evenings without worrying about mosquitoes. Those are simple fixes that ought to be addressed,” Dr Dawes posited.

“Studies have shown that overall well-being, mental health, emotional health, productivity are all related to how much time you spend outdoors in sunlight. Stress relief, exercise, etc, all of these are impacted by the availability of your green spaces,” he said.

He acknowledged and welcomed the increase in commercial activities in the municipality in recent years, but argued that there are many young people who, because of their level of education simply cannot be considered a part of the job market.

“What are we going to do about them? Are we really just going to leave them unattached?” he asked, then argued that “if they’re not attached to something socially acceptable or desirable” the possibility of some of them being lured into gangs is real.

“So we need solutions for persons who, even before COVID, had fallen out of the education system, whether it’s skills training or finding some other vocation for them.”

His focus on education and development of human capital has resulted in him already working with some of the residents in St Catherine South Eastern to set up homework centres.

“On Labour Day we refurbished two rooms, one in Waterford Community Centre and the other in the Cumberland Community Centre. We had donations of computers. So once we have finished the infrastructural work, we will be setting up homework centres, outfitted with computers for children, as well as adults who want to come in and use the Internet. And I want to spread that across the other divisions, I want to have at least one homework centre in each of the five divisions,” Dr Dawes said.

“The other thing I want to do, being a health-care professional, is to look at the elderly, in terms of screening. Too often in my practice I’m seeing persons at the end stage of their diseases when earlier interventions would have saved a lot of lives, money, and quality of life. So I want to look at screening programmes across the constituency,” he added.

The long-held view that Portmore should be equipped with a public hospital has his support.

“As one of the pioneers setting up a private hospital in Portmore, I realised the limitations that paying for access will have. There are still many persons who would not be able to afford coming to a private hospital and they don’t have insurance. They need to have a public hospital or, at the very minimum a type five health centre that is functional where they can get urgent care,” said Dawes, one of the Caribbean’s leading general, laparoscopic and bariatric surgeons.

Asked to share his views on the proposal for Portmore to be named Jamaica’s 15th parish, Dr Dawes said the idea makes sense, based on the population and the fact that the municipality has its own unique needs.

However, he believes the process is being rushed.

“There are many vital and essential services that need to be addressed before we jump into it,” he said. “So, for example, Portmore cannot be a part of the same police area that stretches as far as Old Harbour. We need to have our own police division. The fire station needs to be upgraded. The hospital of course, definitely we need a proper hospital. And the courthouse needs to be expanded; it’s small, it’s insufficient as is, and if we were talking about a parish court, definitely we have a lot of infrastructural and personnel development or expansion [needs] before we consider ourselves being a parish. So those are the issues that I believe every citizen of Portmore would be concerned about.”